Disadvantages

I do like body Shop body butters as they are ricjh and thick and really moisturise well. if you can spare any they make great foor creams as they are so thick. i use mine at night on my feet and my feet are in good condition because of this.

This is a blue colour, subtle but it is blue and smells fruity, more than blueberries do in my opinion. It is not so overpowering that it dominates anything else you want to spray in as a scent though I find.

It is quite a sweet fruity scent so I don't tend to wear it in the day as i like earthier sandalwood sort of scents for the day or evening. this is my night body butter and a i like to vary my selection of scents as i get bored with juts one.

the tub is easy to unscrew and it is easy to see how much you have left and indeed get every last bit out too.

I use the tubs for my own home made beauty stuff afterwards as they are good and strong and screw tightly without leaking.the small tubs make great lush solid shampoo storage!

This makes a great quality moisturiser and blueberries and full of anti oxidants too so beneficial to the skin.

If you like the body butters and want to try this one the my suggestion is look for the 50% deals or two for one as they are expensive otherwise and I am not sure they are worth the full price in truth. They are great at 50% off though.

Disadvantages

We only have a small piece of cottoneaster hedge now so hopefully this will cope. We have had it some years but I find it awkward to use. I find it doesn't cut thicker bits of growth and so I then have to put this down and cut that bit with secateurs.

It take a full 8 hours to charge at first which is a long time but it does last quite well in use.

The handle is designed for the best comfort and control and to feel secure in your hands. It is not too bad but my husband finds it easier than I do as I am quite small.

The blades are 50cm blade long and 1there is an 8mm blade gap which means it is meant for medium hedges.

I do like the fact it is cordless as then there is no danger of accidentally cutting the cord risking electric shock.

Being electric also means you don't have messy petrol and fumes to cope with while you are cutting the hedge.

The whole thing is well balanced from the handle to the blade so easier to operate.

the hedge trimmer comes with one mains charger , one Battery - BLACK AND DECKER GTC1850N 18 Volt and this battery can be replaced with another should you need to just check which ones work with it.

We have been happy enough with ours and would buy again if we needed to but ours has given us a few years of service so far and hope it lasts a few more as we don't have a huge number of hedges in our new house.

they come in a wide range of colours from Blue, to Gold, Yellow, Rose Shades, Scarlet, White and Orange.

they are low growing and make good ground cover plants at the front of beds. they grow around 20 - 25cm high and spread approximately 15cm across.

They flower usually in late Winter to early Spring but can flower longer into Spring.

They are happy in most soils and like either full Sun to Partial Shade to thrive best in.

they tend to give one flowering time a year but I have found if I dead head and cut off the dead flowers that sometimes I get another flowering later in the year.

One they start to clump and spread you will need to thin them out as they will not flower as well. Just did up the clump and separate as you see best with taking a chunk of root as well as top plant - it is usually quite obvious,

Disadvantages

We have just moved house and all the bulbs I have planted over the years I left at my old house. I am now in the process of planting new ones so I have the same colour and thrill in Spring as I did in my old garden.

I like to plant a variety because some flower earlier than others.

i have chosen tete a tete daffodils, crocuses of many colours , mini iris, and lots of tulips of different colours .

I have also planted begonias as they flower a bit later and in fact I have a few flowering now well into October so they last a good long while. I planted around 6 early in the year and these are flowering now. I popped in another 15 bulbs so hopefully next year my garden will be a riot of colour.

The tete a tete daffodils are smaller in height so you don't get the daggy long leaves for ages after they flower.

The only problem with flowering bulbs in spring is if we suddenly have snow or big winds as they have fleshy stems and really struggle to support themselves then and you lose all your lovely flowers .

Spring variety selections are perfect as they give you a range of heights and colours.

they are great for pots as well as in the garden. you can plant them in pots one year then pop them in the garden after they have flowered and died back

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Disadvantages

The one I chose was stainless steel but with patented finger print proof finish. As it is a pedal bin I actually only need to touch it when emptying it so it doesn’t get many finger prints on it anyway, however it does mean it is easy to wipe clean when needed.
I love the fact that this bin is a perfect size for me to reuse supermarket carrier bags. I do take my own when I go shopping but sometimes when I just pop in to grab something I have forgotten I end up with bags and as they are biodegradable I like using them as bin liners. They are also free too which is a bonus!

The bin does have specially designed bags that fit the inner bucket and I got a free pack with the bin which I have yet to use as I have loads of supermarket ones gathered from our packing etc. to use up first.
I also like the fact this has the inner plastic bucket liner which I can lift out and wash if needed. It fits snugly and holds the plastic bag liner neatly in without bits sticking out.

The best thing about this neat little bin is that it self closes very quietly. It is a soft close lid and I love it as our previous one always clanged shut when anyone used it.
As I said this is a neat little bin and the actual dimensions are : One size available in W 17cm (7") x L 38cm (15") x H 35cm (14") which is perfect for us and I find that I only need to empty this every three days or so. For the last few weeks we have had a supermarket bag on a door handle and that not only didn’t look great but I did throw it out every second day and it began to look yucky to me.

This bin comes with a ten year warranty which is impressive. The one we had previously di actually last ten years before the plastic pedal brake and we were reduced to using the metal bit that was left to open and close the bin!
The cost of this bin on the Dunelm site is £27 but I only paid £17 which I think is a better price and I am not sure I would have paid nearly £30 and maybe that was why I rejected it before!i

RECOMMENDED?
Yes I love this little bin. It seems quite sad to be so excited by a kitchen bin but the search was long and hard and my requirements were quite specific.

This bin is large enough in capacity for our needs yet small enough not to be intrusive or in the way in our kitchen.

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Disadvantages

I have thick course hair and as such I am forever looking for shampoo that will keep it soft, feeling light yet not making it frizzy.

This shampoo looked odd, sort of clear yet cloudy and gloopy. It had to be squeezed quite hard to get it out and even then if you let go the shampoo shrunk back ito the bottle.

If you get the stuff out you didn't need much to get a nice creamy lather.

It didn't smell that strong and rather ordinary in my view.

I still need to use a conditioner I found otherwise the magic argan didn't actually do enough to moisturise my dry course curly hair.

I also found that if I used this over a number of days my hair became heavy and lank and I think this is probably because it is hard to rinse out and therefore shampoo residue is left in my hair and builds up.

The bottle is a nice shape and easy to hold and with the gold lid on the blue bottle it looks quite classy. The plastic bottle is of course recyclable through your usual recycling scheme.

I would say this is an okay shampoo but doesn't do much more than many cheaper ones. I feel it is more expensive than it needs to be and I probably wouldn't buy it again. I feel nearly £7 for 385 ml is a lot for a shampoo that is not natural or delivering anything special.

This shampoo is free from sulphates and parabins which is all good and of course has Morocan Argan oil - there must be none left in Morocco according to how many products have soem of this in the ingredients.

I found this an okay shampoo to use once a week or twice a week but not one I would use every day as it makes my hair too heavy and lank.

Disadvantages

We previously had a Sky Hd box but changed to Virgin when we moved house. the engineer came and set the whole system including broadband and phone exactly where we wanted it.

We have two of these boxes in different rooms so that we can record and watch programmes in both. This is great if we want to record two programmes at the same time of broadcasting.

We have never missed any recorded programme and the quality of viewing is great, HD when the original programme is in HD. The sound is good and it is really easy to use and find programmes to watch using the programme guide and then if you want to record just press the record button.

It allows you to record and save quite a few programme but when we have been away we make sure we watch the oldest recordings first otherwise they get deleted to make room for new ones.

I find the remote less user friendly than the sky one but that may just be me getting used to it as we had Sky for ten years and had this for just 6 months.

There are other apps wit the tivo box such as netflicks but we have not used them as yet. In truth we probably don't get full use from ours as we tend to use it just for choosing TV to watch and recording ones we want to watch later.

I like the fact we can start watching a programme about twenty minutes after it has started then zip through the adverts as I hate adverts.

Although we have found we can record most of what we want to watch the 500 GB is а bit mean for modern DVRs but you can add extra memory although we have not felt the need and are coping as we have two boxes.

All in all we are happy enough with this box now we have got used to it. It compares well to the Sky box but not sure it is any better and I hate that bleeping noise - it is totally unnecessary and very annoying.

Disadvantages

The main base unit can be fixed to the wall should you find this more convenient but we have ours just sitting on a table in the hallway. This is the only one that needs to be plugged into an external phone socket as the others are all wireless.

The answer machine is in the base unit. It can take up to 18 minutes of answer messages should it need to. It automatically clicks in after so many rings of not answering.

The number of messages on the phone is displayed on the base unit so you don’t have to use the handset to check if there are any messages.

When you have a message the handset displays the caller's number /name in a list. This means you can skip to the message you want to hear first.

Each handset has a good sized display 1.45 inches, which is backlit so it is really easy to see even on poor light and the menu is also pretty easy to navigate with symbols that make sense. The numbers are lit too so once again easy to see when the light is not great.

The personal phone book can hold 200 numbers. It was a bit of a long time before the names and numbers were put into our digital phone book on the phone as it is a thankless and boring job, it was easy, just tedious.

You can either put the names and numbers into each handset individually or transfer them between the handsets using the symbol on the handset that looks like an open book, copy all the contacts then transfer to each handset you have.

Something that took us a while to work out was that you do have to press the green answer button to answer the phone. Our old phone all we had to do was lift it from the base unit if it was on the base. , if not then we did have to press the green answer button. With this one you always have to press the answer button.

The sound is clear and in the year we have had these we have not lost a call through any fault or struggled to hear anyone from our end. It doesn’t matter if we are near the base unit or in the garden the call is still clear.

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Disadvantages

The Simple brand is supposed go be specially for sensitive skins which is why I bought it as my granddaughter had eczema on her hands recently. I put this in the downstairs loo as that is the one she uses most often.

The push pump is easy to use and you get a decent amount from one push down.My granddaughter finds it easy to use.

The contents don't have much scent but neither does it lather much which she finds a bit frustrating and thus another push of the pump to try for a bit more lather.It does not however cause my hands to dry out so whatever they put in to moisturise obviously works well.

I do use a lot of hand cream even so as my hands seem to be very dry. It seems to be okay for everyone else.

Although this does the job I would not buy this for the kitchen as it is not anti bacterial and I like to have an antibacterial handwash in the kitchen.

This is not exciting, not scented, not coloured and not anti bacterial so all in all it is probably not one I would rush to buy again.

Disadvantages

We choose the APH at Ham'sHall for Birmingham Airport as it is juts off the A38 our road to and from home to the airport . the bus takes you direct to the terminal once you leave your car, the car is parked outside and when you come back you are given your key and told which lane it is in. You have to walk to find the car. They give you the code for getting out of the gate on a piece of card so the place is pretty secure.

The bus come quite quickly so long as you phone after passport while you are waiting at the luggage carousel, by the time your luggage comes through you usually only have to wait a couple of minutes for the bus to take you to the car park.

we have used this service for around ten years now and never had any problems.

Disadvantages

We bought this as we wanted a wireless printer so that we could put it ina store room and use the same printer for all our desktops and laptops.

It was easy to set up and although there is a delay when you ask it to print it does so efficiently.

The scanner is excellent and photocopy feature also quick and easy.

The printer cartridges can be replaced as a subscription service through HP so you never run out as it knows when each cartridge is running low.

It isn't the greatest looking printer being sort of solid and square but I am not judging its looks as it is tucked away where no one can see it most of the time.

We have found that when we ask it to print a larger number of pages it cannot cope and prints some then only part pages as it kind of gives up. We thought it had run out of ink but when we did a couple of pages at a time it worked fine.

You can email it items to print from anywhere in the world but as we don't want to have a printer working when we are not in the country we have not tested that!

We have been happy enough with this as we rarely print bulk items. It does sometimes not print the forst time but a bit of fiddling usually gets it going. We have had the same issue with other printers so I think it is a problem with many hp printers.

For the price I paid which was around £70 I am happy enough and it comes with a 12 month warranty.

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Disadvantages

I regularly shop at Tesco as it is not only convenient but I also get rewarded for buying every day stuff.

I used to shop at Sainsbury's when they gave Airmiles but when they changed to nectar I moved to Tesco.

Clubcard points can be used just to spend in Tesco which is the least beneficial way of spending them but could help if you are really needing help with groceries

Often you can double up ypur points and spend them on dyas out which is a great way of getting value for money. You can use them for Legoland, Alton towers and many more places as well as tickets for shows and other things.

I get my points automatically changed to airmiles which we used to use for flights but since they now charge the tax for flights we tend to use them for hotel stays. We had 4 nights in the Millennium Hilton last year in New York and this year we had 3 nights in a hotel in Portland Oregon using airmiles so free nights as I didn't spend anything more than I would have usually and got free points as a reward.

I love my clubcard as it really is getting something for nothing . You do not have to spend your points at Tesco which I think is a great reward system.

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Disadvantages

This is a loyalty card for Costa coffee shops and as this is one cafe of choice being a British brand that has good tasting coffee and plenty of cofffe shops in different places.

The points are rewarded every time you buy anything in Costa and seem to add up quite quickly and you can then use these these points to spend on coffee or cakes etc in Costa.

You can only earn and spend rewards in Costa coffee shops but sometimes they won't take the card which is annoying. They refuse it in the hospital and I have also had it refused at an airport which I think is wrong. If it is a reward card for the chain then all shops in teh chain should give points for using it I think.

Sometimes they send an email offering double points for buying specific special drinks which is handy to build up the points if you like the coffee special on offer.

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Disadvantages

I took out this card when we discovered how much my Amex card was charging us for using it when we were abroad. It was quite a lot too which added up when we were using it for hotels and meals etc when on holiday. I believe it was around 2.5%.

I read about this on Martin's Money saving website and he suggested the Halifax was a good one woth no charges for using abroad.

I do feel a little guilty as I never use this inthe UK as I use my AMex card which earns me Airmiles when in the UK. I do se this for a small purchase every six months or so if we have not been away for a while just to make sure it is still okay!

I never use an ATM while abroad for cash back on a credit card as that is NIT free. they charge interest from the day you take the cash advance. If you need to then use a debit card for that.

We still phone all our credit and debit card banks to let them know where and when we are travelling so there is never going to be an issue with our cards being stopped as they think they have been stolen - we got caught in New Zealand as we had not let te Bank know and I could not use my debit card which was annoying as then we did have to use the credit card or miss out on a helicopter ride on to the glacier.

This offers no rewards for using it so if you don't travel a lot it is not the best card for use in the UK.